“Don’t all speak at once,” begged Harry Durfee. Joe Chambers responded to the call and followed Alf to the door. Presently they came back with two poles about seven feet long, each sharpened at one end, and a roll of cotton sheeting. Alf also carried a smaller bundle which, when opened, revealed two dozen sandwiches.
“Refreshments,” he announced. “Who wants a sandwich?”
Everybody did. Alf opened the package and laid it on a rock by the roadside, and they stood around and munched the sandwiches. Suddenly Tom said:
“Look up the road, Dan. Don’t you see something near the fence there?”
Dan looked and so did the others, and there was a moment’s silence. Then,
“Sure,” said Roeder, “there’s something moving up there. Maybe it’s a fox.”
“It’s a person,” said Tom, “and I vote we get out of sight until he gets by. Now you can see him.”
“Right-o,” agreed Alf. “Let’s step inside the mill until the prowling pedestrian passes.”
“Gee, I don’t want to go in there,” objected Durfee.
“Come on,” Dan laughed. “Seven of us are enough to match any ghost that ever walked.”
“And seven’s a lucky number, too,” added Chambers, as they made hurriedly for the doorway. They stumbled over the sill and clustered in the darkened interior. From there they couldn’t see the intruder, and so they ate their sandwiches and waited impatiently for him to go by.
“Did any one bring the grub along?” whispered Dan, presently.
No one had. It was out on the rock in plain sight. Dan groaned. “If he sees it he will stop and eat it up, or take it along with him!”
“Like fun he will!” said Alf. “If he touches it we’ll scare the life out of him. Say, let’s do it, anyway, fellows! When he gets up here we’ll make a noise, say ‘O-ooh!’ and see him run!”
“He ought to be here now,” said Tom. “Sneak over there and look through a crack, Dan.”
“And break my neck! The floor’s all torn up and you can walk right through into the water in some places. You do it, Tom. You wouldn’t be missed the way I would.”
“Shut up!” commanded Roeder. “I hear him.”
They lapsed into silence, but no sound reached them.
“You imagined it,” grunted Alf. “Maybe he wasn’t coming this way at all.”
“Yes, he was,” said Tom. “I saw him.” They waited several minutes longer. Then,